Everything is going wrong. My car is going wrong (twice, to the tune of about R8,000), my lab equipment is going wrong, and now my tablet has died the death and it’s not good news. All was well yesterday morning as I avoided Grant Nash by playing the BBC Radio 4 News Quiz podcast on the way into work. But then once I was actually at work, I couldn’t switch the damn thing on.
Cue Google, which took me here, where catchily-named forum user 3omda619 was wailing and gnashing his or her teeth:
Dear Sony,
I bought the Xperia Z Tablet LTE 16g about a month ago.
Now the power button and the headphone port are not working anymore and I don’t know why.
Today my battery drained and I can’t turn it on again and I don’t know what to do.
please HELP!!!!!
“Not quite the same as mine though, because my headphone port is working just fine,” I said, plugging in some headphones to demonstrate this fact to myself.
Damn. OK, so yes, actually exactly the same as mine.
And 3omda619 and I aren’t the only ones. Plenty more cases of this and Sony’s only (and rather futile) advice is to try a full system reset. But it’s a hardware thing, not a software thing, as demonstrated by the complete lack of successful outcomes to this suggested repair method. Also on that forum, the usual kneejerk nonsense from upset customers:
I swear for the rest of my life I will never purchase any Sony product ever again and I will persuade anyone I know not to as well.
Of course you will. Because nothing has ever gone wrong with an LG. Ever.
In fact I will sell my TV, Phone, Tablet and any Sony product I own.
Well, that’ll teach them not to make products which may cease to function in the future, won’t it? Boy, I bet everyone at Sony HQ is quaking in their boots at the prospect of you offering a manufacturer-defined selection of your secondhand consumer durables to other individuals (although I guess you won’t get too much for the tablet right now). Look, I’ve got a bit of spare time, so why don’t we all sit back and watch as the near 70 year old, Japanese-based, multinational conglomerate with revenue of around US$72.349 billion last year, crumbles as you advise your three friends and the milkman not to buy a Sony, shall we?
But I digress. Often. My gorgeous, if poorly-functioning tablet is covered by my Vodacom warranty, so yes, it will have to be repaired, but at least it’s not going to cost me anything.
But where do I take it to? Easy: on the MyVodacom app – still accessible thanks to my idea of utilising the ‘double-tap to wake tablet’ option – there’s a handy map of all my local Vodacom outlets:
I looked at the map. I looked outside. I looked at the map again. There appeared to be little to no correlation between the blank post-apocalyptic Vodacom version and the blue skies, singing birds and pretty mountain upon which I was gazing.
It wasn’t a great start.
Anyway, long story short, a quick(ish) phone call later and I have been told to take my ailing device to Green Point or Canal Walk to have it booked in. This I will do tomorrow. Apparently-allegedly, I will be without it for 2-3 weeks. Well, I’ll keep you updated on that one. I’ve always said that things go wrong from time to time. That’s just life. It’s how you put them right that matters.
From first thing tomorrow morning, that ball will be firmly in Vodacom’s court.
